On July 1, 2017, from 13:00 to 18:00 o’clock in the village of Karahunj, which is 4 kms far from Goris, there took place an event with the title “Mulberry Festival in Goris”.
Mulberry was valued in Karahunj still in the Middle Ages, based on the fact, that the village was located on the Silk Road. Breeding silkworms was developed there, though it is not preserved nowadays. But the mulberry trees, which were planted traditionally in order to feed the silkworms, have given the idea for another tradition: the people of Karahunj learned to distil vodka from mulberry. The fame of this vodka has come out of the borders of not only the village but also the borders of the Republic of Armenia as well.
The vodka of Karahunj was presented at the USSR agricultural exhibition, it got a prize and received the name “Karahunj”. It also got the second name “Lion’s Milk”.
Since 2013, they have started to conduct this festival every year on July 1st in Goris, in the frameworks of the program “The Traditions of Syunik”. Until 2016, the festival was held right in the Town of Goris, but since 2017, it started to be conducted in Karahunj village of Goris community aiming at developing rural tourism as well.
The festival started with an interesting, colorful performance.
Then, before the audience there took place the harvest of mulberry.
After that, the organizers of the festival carried out the awarding of harvest.
Then there was presented a poem about the mulberry vodka
and after that, there started singing and dancing characteristic of the Armenian nation.
At the end of the festival, there was a wonderful one-hour performance of “Masur” folk dance group.
Author: H. Muradyan
Special thanks to the organizer of the festival Areni Festival Foundation.
translated from Armenian into English by M.Vardanyan
吉村貴之によって、題名のアルメニア語から日本語に翻訳しました